Rooster Alert: Josh Mandel's divorce is about to go public

This is a five-alarm fire, folks.

We’re about to learn why Josh Mandel’s wife left him in 2020.

Curiously, Mandel and his now ex-wife Ilana Shafran traveled to Ashland County, where neither of them has any connections, to have their divorce records sealed.

From Dan Trevas of courtnewsohio.gov:

An Ashland County judge failed to justify sealing the divorce records of former U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer Josh Mandel and his ex-wife, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.

In a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court ruled Ashland County Domestic Relations Court Judge Ronald Forsthoefel did not cite the proper legal authority to seal documents related to Josh and Ilana Mandel’s April 2020 marriage dissolution petition. The Court granted the Cincinnati Enquirer’s request to overturn Judge Forsthoefel’s order and directed the judge to conduct a thorough review to determine what records are public.

The opinion stated that the Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio require a judge to provide clear and convincing evidence that the need to seal court records outweighs the right of the public to access records. Judge Forsthoefel did not hold a hearing after he agreed to seal the records, and his order “does not illuminate his reasoning” for sealing, the Court concluded.

This became a point of contest with numerous press outlets as Mandel waged his inevitably doomed campaign for Senate. Shafran is from a wealthy Cleveland-area family with deep ties to GOP politics.

Mandel proved further divisive within Shafran’s family as he moved further right to accommodate his unrelenting ambition. Her family famously took out a full-page ad in the Cleveland Jewish News to shit talk his anti-gay platform when he ran for Senate against Sherrod Brown in 2012.

Mandel and Shafran filed for divorce in April 2020, with the final resolution in June that year.

The word on the street is Mandel’s serial infidelity finally led to the divorce. Mandel was said to be unable to keep his fucked-up looking dick in his pants on the campaign bus.

Mandel is currently dating Rachel Wilson, his former campaign fundraiser. The couple’s public, highly combustible arguments routinely led to staffers quitting throughout the campaign.

Mandel lost the race when Donald Trump, who called Mandel an uncharismatic weirdo, endorsed J.D. Vance. Mandel quickly scrubbed and locked his social media accounts and attempted to slither back to private life.

Whatever is in these documents, Mandel and Shafran went to great lengths to seal them. Hopefully what comes to light keeps Mandel out of public life for the rest of his life. We as Ohioans deserve some modicum of peace after being afflicted by his decade-long Senate campaign.

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